Optimism expects 343 million OP to be in circulation in year 5

The Optimism Foundation publishes an annual budget update with a look ahead to year 5, which runs from May 2026 through to April 2027. According to the forecast, approximately 343 million OP tokens will be added to the circulating supply during that period, bringing the total to 2.504 billion OP. That is 58.3% of the total token supply.

Optimism is available at OKX and Bybit.

In brief:

• The Optimism Foundation expects 343 million OP tokens to enter circulation between May 2026 and April 2027.
• The largest portion, 200 million OP, comes from the ecosystem fund.
• No new token allocations are being requested; all tokens come from the original distribution.

Ecosystem fund provides the largest share

Of the expected 343 million OP, the vast majority comes from the ecosystem fund: 200 million OP. That fund is intended to support projects and developers within the Optimism network. In addition, early core contributors receive 47.6 million OP and 15.3 million OP goes to investors.

For airdrops and retroactive funding, zero OP is planned for year 5. The governance fund receives a relatively modest allocation of 10 million OP. The Foundation states in the budget update that all expected tokens come from the original distribution and that no request has been made for additional tokens.

Forecasts subject to change

The Foundation makes clear that these are indicative estimates. The final figures may still change based on how programmes perform and on decisions taken through governance. The latter means that token holders and delegates can influence the final distribution.

At the end of year 5, the circulating supply is estimated at 2.504 billion OP, which amounts to 58.3% of the total supply of 4.294 billion OP. The total token supply itself does not change; only the share that is actually in circulation increases.